NRA lobbyist makes case for Trump

The National Rifle Association on Tuesday sent its chief lobbyist to the GOP convention for the first time ever, a sign of the group's deep apprehension over a potential Hillary Clinton presidency.

Chris Cox, the executive director of the NRA’s lobbying arm, excoriated the presumptive Democratic nominee for benefiting from armed guards while calling for others to relinquish their guns.

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“It’s easy for her to dismiss a right that she will never have to use," Cox told the convention audience. "But for the rest of us, the choice to own a firearm is ours to make."

Besides Tuesday night's precedent-setting speech, the NRA has also officially taken sides in this year's presidential election earlier than usual, despite initial qualms over Trump’s earlier positions on guns. The group endorsed Trump at its May convention, in contrast to the way it had waited until the fall to endorse former GOP nominees Mitt Romney and John McCain.

Cox is the first NRA official to appear at a political convention, a spokesman for the group confirmed. (A Republican National Convention list of speakers mistakenly listed the credentials of a different Chris Cox, the former congressman and Securities and Exchange Commission member.)

The Cox who spoke Tuesday holds the distinction of being one of the few people this cycle to get Trump to back off a controversial position.

After Trump suggested that armed club-goers could have stopped last month's Orlando massacre, Cox quickly weighed in, telling ABC's “This Week” that “no one thinks that people should go into a nightclub drinking and carrying firearms —that defies common sense.”

The next day, Trump clarified his position on Twitter: “When I said that if, within the Orlando club, you had some people with guns, I was obviously talking about additional guards or employees.”